At Builders Depot Direct we are reading on web forums: Who is Builders Depot? How can they sell Subway Carrara for $7.00SF? How is Kronotex, Kronoswiss or Classen Laminate only $0.75SF? Glass Tiles for $2.40 Each? Has anyone bought from them, the prices are too good to be true? ETC, ETC.

We have put this together to help - our goal is to sell the highest quality Building Materials & Home Improvement products at the lowest possible price. 

‘Selling the Highest Quality Building & Home Improvement Products at the Lowest Possible Price'  This sounds easy enough but let's examine this in the market place Builders Depot Direct competes in. I hope this helps our customers and potential customers understand more about our business and the costs we have eliminated.  First lets look at the traditional method of buying buildings materials (also includes home improvement & remodeling products).

The Home Center: (Lowes, Home Depot, etc) the home center buys products directly from manufacturers, they store the products in there DC's (Distribution Centers - not efficient) and then ship out to their store.  Home centers offer confidence and choice. They have also built up enormous costs, the huge stores, internal logistics operations, tens of thousands of employee costs, CEO cost in the $100m+ - overpaid executives, private jets - they also have to make huge profits to report to Wall Street.

This all takes it's toll on the products they sell - take a piece of tile: cost from manufacturer $4.00SF - add to that the private jets, vacations, corporate offices, functions, million dollar bonuses, huge stores, lighting, heating, air conditioning, etc, etc. That tile has to have all that cost built into it and then a profit on top. $4.00SF soon becomes $14.00SF.

You the consumer pay for all the costs; you send the CEO a nice Christmas bonus (because the $10m salary is not enough) and then you make the shareholders a profit as well.

The Retailer: (Local retail store/small chain). The retailers buy from a distributor, the distributor buys from a manufacturer. This is not very cost effective as the poor retailer buys from a distributor who has to make 20% margin and the manufacturer sells to the distributor.

The retailer has some of the similar cost issues that the Home Center has - fixed overhead, heating, air conditioning, utility costs, employee costs, etc, etc. The retailer does offer local service, more than likely better product knowledge than the above home center and that small town - ‘one on one' customer service feel. However as with the Home Center there is a cost. Take the $4.00SF tile, the manufacturer sells to the distributor - the distributor adds his margin and then sells onto the poor retailer.

The retailer then has to add all his fixed costs we mentioned, variable costs and finally a profit as well. The $4.00SF tile soon becomes $20.00SF.

Now Lets look at the Non-Traditional method of selling Building Materials & Home Improvement products.  The ecommerce retailer of building materials & home improvement products has really grown over the last 10 years. Grown enough to categorize them:

The Ecommerce Home Center: These are the mega online companies, enter keywords like Building Materials, Laminate Flooring, Ceramic Tile into Google and they jump out at you. They have Pay Per Click budgets of $1/5m a quarter; they receive thousands of hits a day. The sites are a work of art, pictures beautifully laid out - testimonials that seem to go on forever, customer service that can anticipate your very next question. They have taken on the Traditional Home Center, built mini empires, quoted change and building material revolution until every venture capitalist is knocking at their doors.

They make the Internet Top 500 retailers and their sales can be $50m+. However, lets again take the $4.00 tile. These Mega ecommerce home centers have built huge costs and become victims of their own success (Ifloor.com files bankruptcy). As they get bigger the executives demand more compensation, the website development costs a fortune, they bring in $2,000 an consultants to discuss supply chain efficiency, the graphic art, pictures, expert endorsements, You Tube videos, more and more employees, Pay Per Click advertising, training, etc, etc. All add to the $4.00 tile. All add to the $4.00SF tile that they want you to buy from them.

They advertise their direct buying power and supply channel efficiency, but in reality they are no more efficient than the brick and mortar companies they set out to compete against. The costs become overwhelming (one even filed bankruptcy) and the $4.00SF tile becomes $12.00SF.

Okay so they did it, $2.00SF cheaper than the brick and mortar home center they set out to beat. But they have not really changed anything and they certainly have not revolutionized the Building Materials Industry or created any change - they have created themselves small empires and become wealthy in the process.

So how is Builders Depot Direct different? Builders Depot Direct want to sell the Highest Quality Home Improvement and Building Materials at the Lowest Possible Price. We have no budget for marketing, no website development costs, no banner ads, no pay per click advertising expense - we have minimal employees (you can tell if you try and call us 800-308-9359) barely enough to cover the overwhelming number of phone calls.

Product quality and price is our sales tool, our customer referrals will be our next sale - at Builders Depot Direct - we will only sell those products that we can truly buy factory direct. So Builders Depot Direct will also buy the tile for $4.00SF (the same price as the Home Center & Ecommerce Home Center)

We will take the $4.00SF tile/laminate and sell it for $5.00SF. We will operate so minimally and keep our costs so low that our customers will get the best possible value.

Builders Depot Direct business will operate on:

• Integrity
• Responsibility
• And honesty

At Builders Depot Direct will strive to reduce cost in every area of our corporation so we can deliver our customers the best possible value. We recognize that this is tile, laminate, glass - it is building materials not rocket science. We do not need luxurious office accommodation or $2,000 an hour consultants - we just need to be able to take a $4.00SF tile/laminate of the highest quality - make sure it is well packaged and deliver it to our customers as quickly as possible for the lowest possible price.

Builders Depot Direct customers WILL GET the Highest Quality Home Improvement & Building Materials products at the Lowest Possible Price.